Crunchy Roll Sushi Recipe

✅ 3 reasons why you'll love this recipe:

• Fresh, flavourful and crunchy - soft, satisfyingly chewy sushi rice, crisp nori, succulent sashimi or imitation crab sticks, with a delightfully crisp crunchy onion topping.
• Versatile - fill the rolls with your favourite sashimi or use imitation crab sticks for a convenient and cost-effective option.
• Fail-safe step-by-step instructions - even if you have never made a sushi roll before.

🛒 Key ingredients and variations:

Which rice is best for making sushi?

Japanese short or medium-grain rice is best for making sushi because the grains stick together. This type of rice is commonly referred to as ‘sushi rice’ and is available in many supermarkets as well as Asian Grocery stores. Do not be tempted to swap this for another type of rice like basmati, as the sushi will fall apart.

Which type of fish should I use?

A crunchy sushi roll will taste great with several varieties of raw and cooked fresh fish. Tuna and salmon sashimi are fresh and tasty, just make sure they are sashimi grade. If raw fish is hard to get hold of or simply doesn’t appeal, cooked crab meat or imitation crab sticks are convenient, cost-effective and easy-to-find.

Sauces

The sauces add additional flavour and act as the glue that holds the crunchy onions onto the rice. My recipe includes instructions for a mildly spicy sriracha mayo and a sweet umami eel sauce. You can use store-bought teriyaki sauce instead of eel sauce if you are short on time.

🧑‍🍳 Crunchy Sushi Rolls in 5 easy steps

1. Cook the rice

Soak the rice in water for 10 minutes and rinse until the water runs clear. Put the rice in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to boil and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. Then simmer on a medium heat for 10 minutes until the rice water is absorbed.

Meanwhile mix the rice vinegar, salt and sugar in a small jug or bowl. Stir this into the cooked rice and transfer to a shallow dish to cool.

2. Make the sauces

Make the eel sauce by adding soy sauce, sugar, mirin and sake/water to a small pan, stir and bring to boil for 10 minutes. Set aside when done.

Meanwhile, make the sriracha mayo by mixing sriracha, mayonnaise, rice vinegar and sugar in a small bowl.

3. Assemble

Prepare the dipping bowl and wrap the sushi rolling mat in a piece of plastic wrap. Place a nori sheet on top with the rough side facing up and spread an even layer of rice onto the sheet. Carefully turn the sheet over and place the crab sticks (or other fish), cucumber sticks, and avocado slices in a straight line onto the nori.

4. Roll

Roll tightly until the bottom edge of the rice touches the nori sheet. Then place the rolling mat on the top of the roll and gently squeeze.

5. Add sauce and crispy fried onions

Drizzle a small amount of eel sauce and sriracha mayo onto the sushi rolls and top with a generous layer of fried onions. Slice into even-sized pieces with a wet knife. Serve immediately with soy sauce, wasabi and sushi ginger, or refrigerate to enjoy later.

👍 Top tips

1. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear - it might be tempting to skip this step, but the excess starch on unrinsed rice will result in overly sticky rice that has an unpleasant gummy texture.
2. Wet your hands and the knife - rolling and cutting sushi rolls is a lot easier when you wet your hands and knife with the water and vinegar mixture in the dipping bowl (tezu).
3. Trim off the ends to neaten the rolls - if the ends of the rolls look a little uneven trim them a little to neaten them up.

🙋 FAQs

What is a crunchy roll?A Crunchy California roll is a sushi roll that has a crunchy texture. It is often filled with tempura shrimp while other variations are filled with sashimi, or imitation crab meat. All crunchy rolls will have a crunchy outside made with crunchy tempura flakes, crispy panko breadcrumbs or crispy fried onions.

What is on the outside of a crunchy roll?The crispy texture of a crunchy roll is created by adding tempura flakes, panko breadcrumbs or crunchy onions to the outside of the roll. A sauce like eel sauce and / or sriracha or kewpie mayo is added first to add flavour and enable the crunchy topping to stick to the roll.

Is a crunchy sushi roll cooked?Crunchy sushi rolls are a great way to enjoy sushi if you are apprehensive about eating raw fish. They taste deliciously fresh when filled with sashimi but can also be filled with cooked fish like crispy shrimp tempura, poached shrimp or imitation crab meat.

What’s the difference between a Maki roll and a California crunch sushi roll?

The key difference is that maki rolls have rice on the inside and nori on the outside. California rolls are 'inside out' with nori on the inside and rice on the outside. They are often topped with black sesame seeds or tobiko whereas Crunchy California rolls have a crispy topping or tempura flakes, panko breadcrumbs or crispy fried onions.

🍣 Other types of sushi roll

One of my favorite things about sushi is that there are so many options to try. It certainly never gets boring.

Spicy California crunch roll - make a hotter crunchy roll with more sriracha mayo, spicy sauce or spicy mayonnaise. You can also fill the roll with spicy tuna or spicy salmon to make a spicy tuna or spicy crunchy salmon roll.

Shrimp tempura roll - a California roll filled with shrimp tempura, cucumber and creamy avocado slices.

Fried California sushi roll - made by dipping a crunchy roll in egg, sriracha and soy sauce, rolling in breadcrumbs and frying medium-high heat in a large skillet until golden brown.

Boston roll - shares some of the same fillings as the crunchy roll including avocado, cucumber and mayonnaise. It is filled with poached shrimp and topped with brightly coloured tobiko fish roe.

Dragon roll - inside-out rolls filled with shrimp tempura with thinly sliced avocado on the outside that resemble the scales of a dragon.

Philadelphia roll - filled with smoked salmon, cream cheese, cucumber and avocado.

Serving suggestions

I always like to serve sushi with a bowl of miso soup topped with green onion and warm edamame beans. A side of kani salad or imitation crab salad will also go nicely.

📦 Storage

Crunchy sushi rolls taste best when eaten fresh. However, they will keep in the fridge for up to 2 days if made with cooked fish like imitation crab sticks. If you are using raw sashimi refrigerate as soon as possible and consume within 24 hours. Place them in an airtight container or cover with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge as soon as possible.

Sushi is not suitable for freezing.

😋 Check out my other Japanese-inspired recipes

If you enjoyed these crunchy sushi rolls you should try some of my other Japanese recipes including my Katsu Curry, Grilled Mackerel Rice Bowl, and Chicken Ramen. They’re all super tasty and easy to put together.

Pork Katsu Curry

Grilled Mackerel Rice Bowls With Soy & Mirin Sauce

Easy Weeknight Chicken Ramen Recipe

Easy Soy Sauce Marinated Ramen Eggs Recipe

Did you try this recipe? It would be really great if you could leave a comment and a star rating ⭐️. I would love to receive your feedback and know that other readers find it helpful too.

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📖 Recipe